The Shoe Store
by Chrys-DASL
Summary: When Tommy is assigned a school project for psychology, he decides the shoe store was a decent place to stake out. What he finds is the worst of retail behavior: a middle-aged woman who seems to think he works there. Can he escape from her unharmed? One-shot. For my At The Mall series. See my profile for more info.


**The Shoe Store**

Theme 97: School Project, Theme 214: First Job

Series: At The Mall

Tommy entered the shoe store and looked around. The mall in their town was lacking in many ways, but at least the shoe store was pretty decent. All of the most famous brands were advertised using posters on the front windows. Weird foot mannequins showed off the shoes to passing shoppers, and if they were lucky, some of those shoppers came in to buy.

Normally Tommy came here when he needed a new pair of shoes, but today he was here for a school project. His psychology teacher wanted him to observe the public, and while she offered numerous options for them, he decided the shoe store would be the best one. His friends probably wouldn't see him, which was good because he needed good data, and he could stop by the food court on his way out for a good dinner.

Tommy found a bench towards the back of the store that gave him a clear view of the entire store. He pretended to try on a pair of sneakers, then he decided to pretend to be waiting for a friend when a few other teens showed up. He was making mental notes about how boring this whole shoe-buying scenario was when he heard a noise from behind him.

At first, he thought it was the ducts. The mall was an old building, so when it was time for air conditioning or heat, the ducts often made strange noises. This noise sounded exactly like that at first, but when it repeated, Tommy realized it wasn't the ducts at all. It was a woman, a mad older woman whose eyes showed she was out for blood.

"You CHILDREN are so UNPROFESSIONAL!" she huffed, chucking a box of hideous old lady shoes at Tommy, "I need this in a Size 7! WIDE! NOW!" she bellowed.

"I don't work here," Tommy said with a stunned tone. What was this woman thinking? He was wearing a band t-shirt, jeans with a torn knee, and some well-worn shoes. The employees wore red polos, black slacks, and nice black shoes.

The woman scoffed, "EXCUSES, EXCUSES! I need those shoes, Size SEVEN in WIDE! RIGHT NOW!" she exclaimed.

Tommy looked around for cameras. He swore he was being punked by someone, but there was no one else around. The store was deserted somehow, and even the employees seemed to be missing. Tommy was on his own for this one.

Reluctantly he stood and went to the only door inside the shop. A strict EMPLOYEES ONLY sign was hanging over the door, but Tommy went in hoping to find someone. Instead he found a tiny room filled with empty shoe boxes. A shelf on the back wall had several pairs of shoes, but they were all returns. Contrary to what this woman believed, there were no shoes in the back. Judging by the size of the room, the technically didn't have a "back," they had a closet.

Tommy returned to the floor but went to the women's shoe aisles. He searched the area with Size 7 shoes and found a wide pair similar to what the woman was complaining about. He found her all the way in the toddler section studying some ballet shoes.

"What took you so long?" she huffed.

"I don't work here, but are these close enough? It's all they have," Tommy said.

The woman scoffed, trying on the shoe. She nodded, "I'll still be having a talk with your manager about this RIDICULOUS service," she huffed, tossing the original shoes back at him but marching to the front with her pair. An employee had reappeared, along with other customers, so Tommy sat back down again.

The next thirty minutes were extremely uneventful. A pair of girls came in giggling, both with other bags in hand. They tried on the store's highest heels and clomped around before heading out again. A stressed out mom led in three boys and somehow managed to get the unruly bunch matching shoes for a friend's upcoming wedding (she was very loud). In the end, Tommy felt he had enough for a report, so he restocked the shoes he'd pretended to try on and started to leave the store.

"Excuse me!" someone called. Tommy's heart sank as he realized someone else might be mistaking him for a worker. He turned to see one of the actual employees coming to get him.

Tommy froze, "I'm just here for a project, I swear! I'm not trying to steal anything."

The employee laughed, "Oh no, I'm here about that woman. She kept complaining about how long my worker took to get her shoes, but I'm the only one here right now. She must've come in while I was out, but you're the only one who was here. Did you help her?"

Tommy nodded, "I did my best."

"That's all we can do…"

"Tommy, Tommy Pickles."

"Look, Tommy, we're so short staffed we're about to cut the store's hours. I was wondering if you're of age so I could hire you. I know she complained about your service and all that, but if you were willing to even attempt to help a woman like that, you're good in my book. So, are you able?" she begged.

"I won't be fifteen until next month," Tommy replied.

The girl thought for a moment. She smirked, "Typos happen all the time. Happy birthday! Can you start tomorrow afternoon?"

Tommy agreed, so she gave him a form to fill out so she could get his contact information. He also received information on where to get his official uniform. He got those items before leaving the mall and returned home to a stunned Didi:

"What's all this?" she asked, looking him over. Tommy explained the situation as his father entered the room. When Stu heard, he was proud of his son for getting his first job without much effort:

"You just do your best, okay sport?" Stu smiled, patting him on the back. Tommy agreed and went upstairs to do his homework while it was still fresh.

After thumbing through the book for over an hour, he decided just to tell the story as it was. Somehow in a daze, the woman thought he was an employee of the store and wouldn't take no for an answer. He didn't know how frequently this happened, but he noted the other distracted shoppers and how easy it would be to get in the wrong frame of mind.

The next day in class, they were asked to read their reports out loud. Tommy volunteered to go first just to get it out of the way, but he ended up derailing the entire class. Several students had experienced the same thing, and if they hadn't, then someone they knew had. It was extremely common, but his teacher offered no explanation. People were hard to explain, Tommy thought, if the teacher couldn't even come up with an answer. Then Tommy realized how young she was and how close her attire was to some of the students in the class. Tommy grinned—the school probably asked her all the time why she wasn't in class, but she did work there. It was a two-way street, one that was too hard to explain. At least he was able to start a good discussion, plus he got a job to boot.

~End

The themes above are from my Infinite Theme List. For more information, see my deviantArt profile. As for the series, "At The Mall" started as an Arthur series, but I want to expand it to include more fandoms, as well as more authors. If you're interested in writing pieces about your favorite characters having adventures at the mall, let me know. I'll add your piece to my collaboration community. For more info, please PM me.


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